“When the central government announced a plan to rebuild what the war had devastated, the municipality put forth a request to establish a sea. Unlike other requests, which usually lingered in a state of neglect, tucked away in drawers, the central government responded right away, as they didn’t have any drawers in their offices in which to hide such paperwork.”
“It wasn’t just the Obesity Control Police. Everyone in town constantly challenged my humanity because of my weight. They called me an animal so many times that, for a moment, I thought I’d become one.”
“Through it all, Moroccans have maintained their ability to laugh at everything. Do we not have a well-known proverb that says, ‘Too much worrying makes you laugh?'”
“My father got dressed, brushed off his tarbush with the sleeve of his jacket, and placed it at an appropriate tilt on his head. Then he twisted the ends of his white mustache all the way up to his nostrils. We left the apartment, locking the door behind us, and went down to the street. I noticed we were heading toward the tram stop.”
“And so it was out of sheer laziness that he decided to go without his phone for the rest of the day. He assured himself it was safe, and that there was no way it could get stolen. In any case, he could use the landline or his dear wife’s mobile if there was an emergency, and he needed to get hold of family or friends.”
“yes, the sea changes colors / drinking the yellow of my doubt and distrust / turning as blue as my melody / my songs and ships set sail on its scattered waves”
This summer, we will run select pieces from summer issues of ArabLit Quarterly. This excerpt from a tenth-century poem by Abu Dulaf, translated by Brad Fox, ran in the summer 2020 CRIME issue of the magazine.
The twelve authors from nine countries who recommended books for our list of 2023 summer reads had different ideas about what you need in a summer book.
